


i found you (who i thought i'd lost)

by raleighocean



Series: An Original Horror Story [13]
Category: American Horror Story
Genre: 2022, Hurt/Comfort, Lost siblings, witch!Wilhemina Venable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26090446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raleighocean/pseuds/raleighocean
Summary: He doesn’t know why he’s so nervous, where all that confidence that he built during years went as they were driving towards the Robichaux’s Academy. But for a second, he closed her eyes and remember the smile his mother gave him in one of those last moments of clarity she had before passing away, and it gave him courage enough to finally find what his ten years old self had been yearning twelve years more: someone that was actually home.
Relationships: Original Character(s) & Original Character(s), Wilhemina Venable/Original Character(s)
Series: An Original Horror Story [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1305791





	i found you (who i thought i'd lost)

His hands were quick to check again if his vest was well placed, to smooth every wrinkle that could have possibly appeared in the ride from aunt Abigail's house. He was still getting used to not wearing his uniform and more adequate clothes, so he felt strange wearing such an outfit.

"You crooked your collar, honey," his aunt's gentle hands went to fix it for him and he felt how the weight on his shoulders eased a bit. 

"If you keep being this nervous, I'm afraid you'll pass out as soon as we are at their doorstep," Behold barely pulled down his sunglasses to look at him. "And you'll sweat your new suit."

"Sorry, si...Behold," it was hard to not address the man as usual, but he was getting there. "It's just that...what if she doesn't like me? What if she thinks I'm a fraud and came to hurt her even more?"

Abigail looked at Behold when the boy, her sweet boy, looked down to his new shoes. All this new apparel only made him look like a child in adult clothes. The other man in the car sighed loudly and put a hand on his thigh, reassuring, like a father about to give his son good advice. Facing his hand upwards, he waited for the boy to place his there, and when he did it Behold just gathered his magic to give him more strength.

"Then she will miss how good you are, Rowan," it made him smile, trembling a bit, but seeing him like that was better than seeing him reduced to the little boy that Abigail brought to Hawthorne when he was barely twelve. "But taking in count you two exchanged emails and she picked you personally among other warlocks to teach, I think she would at least listen to you."

"She still thinks I'm trying to seduce her or something," the three of them laughed at that, because Rowan had told them as much. 

The joke made the air in the car to soften, his worries stopping from making his magic move a bit wildly. And from then, the ride kept its calmness till they finally arrived. 

It was nice to see their sisters live in such... beautiful place. He wished for a second for Hawthorne to be like that again, because he had seen its better days before everything went underground for their safety. And maybe, in the future, he could say something to reborn their school in a nicer place. His eyes not only went to both manors, because they could only be called like that, but to the highest protection enchantment he ever saw. The magic lattice called him, as if it was reclaiming him in some way, and his magic moved slowly towards it as if it was the Hamelin's flautist.

"Everything's gonna be fine, Roro," his aunt managed to pull his focus away from it and it tingles against the skin of his neck something similar to static. It wasn't a sweet sensation, it was a dangerous one, full of 'come and see what I have', making the hairs in the back of his neck going up. 

"If we manage to come in," Behold had been looking at the same Rowan did, and now was more serious than he saw him since they left Hawthorne. "We can't touch that fence without probably being back in San Francisco on a box or just by the sheer force of the magic."

"Why don't you just ring the bell?"

Rowan didn't have time to actually stop her aunt and Behold was too dumbfounded about her acting so...natural about the whole thing. But when Abigail touched the button, it didn't happen anything but the mere sound of the bell. And it hit him that, even when her aunt knew about magic...she wasn't a witch at all. She had been aware of it because her family had been one of the few that actually came from the witches of Salem, her mother being the last witch before Mallory was born, halting his aunt and his aunt's children's generation.

Mallory, his cousin, which he didn't see in person for at least seven years.

They waited for a second, watching closely in case the magic bubble that protected both houses did something, but the only thing that happened was the fence opening for them.

Once they were in the grounds, Rowan started to feel like he shouldn't be there. Not because he regretted his decision to come, but because it felt like his magic didn't belong there and was a frightening experience, as if they didn't want him at all. Rowan wondered, curious as always, if the witches felt the same when they went to Hawthorne. Did his sister feel it? And what about the Supreme?

But it all had to wait in his head, because there was a figure waiting in the doorsteps for them. 

Rowan recognized her face because he had seen her in Mallory's social media, however her name escaped his thoughts. The red headed woman with the cane - and the dog, a very large dog that was by her side in such protective way that he wondered if the animal would bite them if they tried to put a hand on the woman - arched one eyebrow upon seeing them and when they reached her, she talked with easiness.

"Goode didn't expect you until Friday," there was a bit of confusion in her words, but it didn't make her voice waver. 

"Our schedules allowed us to come a day earlier," Behold said to her in a light manner, shaking her hand in a short movement. "How have you been Wilhemina?"

"Sweetheart! So long since we saw each other," his aunt Abigail launched forward and enveloped the woman in her arms, without caring a bit about how uncomfortable the sudden burst made her. "I have to give an earful to that rascal, you and Raleigh have to come more often for tea."

He was paralyzed while the greetings were exchanged, not knowing what to do except exchanging glances with the dog, which seemed happy by the way its tail hit rhythmically the porch's floor. The dog got up when Abigail gave it some cuddles in its big head and Behold tried to avoid it because it had  _ drool _ falling from its mouth, but then it approached him as if it knew him from forever and hit his knees with his big body, trying to get some more cuddles.

"Who's a good boy," he mumbled, scratching its head and receiving a head butt in the right thigh and a low bark. "Yes, you totally are…"

"Sidonia, here," Wilhemina called the dog suddenly and  _ she  _ obeyed gladly without missing a bit. "I'll walk you to the office, Goode is a bit busy this afternoon but I'm sure she'll receive you right away. Kyle, come here and help them, please."

A boy not older than Rowan himself approaches them shyly yet surely, reaching for their luggage. For him and Behold, for sure, the boy - Kyle - reeked of magic that wasn't his, as if it was part of him in some way. It creeped him out but decided not to think more about it, only smiling at him politely. It made him more nervous, however, to know that he was following his  _ sister-in-law  _ in order to know his actual sister. He couldn't help himself to look at the way she presented herself and wonder, again like his whole life, that he now knew why his sister didn't care much about any men.

However, all that nervousness melted away when they finally entered the Supreme's office and saw such a powerful woman cradling in her arms a baby while a mere toddler was listening to her reading the book the little girl held. A tender scene that was soon broken by them showing up sooner than expected.

"It's good to see miss Day's pregnancy went well," Behold said, a softer smile tugging at his lips while keeping his position after taking off his hat. "A boy this time, perhaps?"

"You really wished, Behold, he would have been a hot topic in Hawthorne," Cordelia chuckled softly at that before looking at Wilhemina for a second and then to the little girl. "Sweetie, mom has work to do, I'm sorry."

"Come here, I'll give you all those dinosaur cookies you like and none of your mothers can do anything about it," was the only response the redheaded gave, getting a groan back from one of the little girl's moms and a little chirp from said girl. 

But even when the bribe was there to take, the girl stood there by her mom, standing up with the baby in her arms to place  _ her  _ in the auxiliary crib. She looked unsure of what to do for a second and Rowan felt a tug at his heart.

It seemed she didn't want to be separated from her mother...or her baby sister.

"You better go eat them or I'll do," he found himself saying, getting the rest of the adults to look at him and making him blush madly. "I'm getting hungry."

She didn't need more, quickly making her way towards Wilhemina's waiting hand. She gave a little push to Rowan, as if asserting her will to not let him eat her cookies, and pulled a bit rougher than intended to make the woman about to taking care of her to hurry. But it was obvious that Wilhemina had her own pace, so the only thing she got was a light reprimand before both leaving the office, Sidonia walking behind them loyally.

"I thought you'd arrive on Friday, did something happen?" Cordelia finally asked, after placing an enchantment to cover the crib in a bubble of silence - of course he knew, it was an easy one. "And why is Miss Prince here?"

"I think I'll let mister Ramírez here to explain himself, he's actually the one that wanted to have a meeting with you." Behold only took a seat after helping Abigail to do the same, letting Rowan stand there while Cordelia looked at him after putting away whatever her kid left behind. "The only thing I ask you is to listen to him till the end."

Okay that literally threw any courage he was building but there wasn't a way back. Cordelia sat then, patiently waiting for him to start talking, but at the same time her face showed her worry because it was obvious she never got called by a teacher just for the sake of it.

Rowan took a couple deep breaths, messing his hair back - why did he decide to let it loose instead of having it in a bun like always -, and then he started before it took too long and he bored her to death.

"I called this meeting b-because...because a few months ago, I discovered something that could maybe change a life. It took me long enough to gather every bit of information and not give myself false hopes," he finally put the folder he had been holding all the way from the hall, when he took it out of his backpack, over the desk for Cordelia to see. "And now that I know for sure there's a chance, I wanted to give it a try. That's why my aunt is here," the statement made Cordelia frown and look at Abigail. "She came as a witness and another source of validation in case everything fails."

"Why would you need a witness, mister Ramírez?" asked the Supreme, taking the files in her hands to read them while talking. 

"Because I was... I'm afraid she won't believe me, miss Goode," his chest got tight to that and then he decided to let her read everything he had compiled in those pages. "I don't want to hurt her more, I want the best for my...for her in fact, but I promised my mother I would find her and that's what I did once I was old enough for it," he chuckled, closing his eyes and trying to tighten his fists to control himself. "All that I had to do was gather information, in the end, because she came to me not long ago with any of us knowing anything…" Cordelia was now reading, a hand to her lips, and a dark look in her eyes. "I just wanted her to know about me, let her decide what to do with me, but if she decides she doesn't want anything to do with me, I'll just keep living my life without bothering her anymore…it was the last thing my mother wanted. For us to at least find each other."

"How is this even possible?" she mumbled, looking now at him. "The records said she didn't have any other child."

"Because Kaya didn't want you mother to know about him, not after what she did," Abigail talked then, helping his nephew. "She came to me when she was left alone after knowing about him growing in her womb," she sighed a bit louder. "And it's easy to trick those who don't look for someone anymore. Myrtle Snow came to see Kaya a few years later and, by that time, she had lost herself in her gift trying not only to find her daughter but because that gift was selfish like that. My mother knew about that fatal flaw, because our families had been close since a really long time ago, and after seeing myself how much grief all this brought to Kaya...well, it was only natural for me to help her. I took Rowan as my great-nephew and sent him away to Hawthorne when the time for him came."

That explanation made Cordelia to rub her forehead, wrapping her head around the situation as fast as she could so she could handle it well enough when the wave came in.

"Didn't you think it would be right to tell her right away when she came back?" there was anger in Cordelia's voice and Rowan couldn't blame her because he felt the same upon knowing his aunt kept in touch with his sister.

"It wasn't the right time yet, not for her, not for him," the feeling that there was something more behind those words grew once again, but he knew his aunt well enough to know she wasn't going to tell anything. "But now it may be."

Rowan couldn't help but look at his new shoes, again, with the mighty need of taking them off and throwing them away. He felt uncomfortable, he wanted to get in his other comfy clothes, he wanted to be in his room at Hawthorne fantasizing his half-sister was out there waiting for him to find her...not in front of the Supreme trying to make her see he was telling the truth.

"I don't know how she's gonna react," Cordelia's tone was sincere once she talked again and looked at him pitifully, a strange sorrow clouding her eyes. Rowan felt himself tear up, but held it together. "She's been calmer, yes, but this touches everything she protects fiercely," she stood up again, circling her desk to stand by Rowan and putting both hands in his shoulders. "I don't want to get your hopes high, but I can promise you to be there when you finally tell her."

"That's much better than the fatalism he was bringing all this time," Behold finally spoke up, letting go a deep sigh. "Take it, my boy. It's better than anything."

"When do you want to tell her?" Cordelia asked, leaning in her desk and looking at the warlocks.

"When is her lower time to avoid getting decapitated?" he joked, his body relaxing a bit just because he let some stress out like that. Rowan didn't see how Cordelia's eyes lightened up a bit upon hearing that kind of humour.

"Then during dinner time, she always had been one to relax after getting food at night," Abigail took in her hands to bring more peace to the room. "Why don't we go get you some tea, sweetheart? It'll do you some good."

"And maybe afterwards you can watch some afternoon classes? I'm sure it will interest you to see how we proceed here," the Supreme proposed, looking first at Behold and then at Rowan again. "If that's alright with you."

"He isn't a student anymore, mister Ramírez here is his own persona and a teacher that you appointed after all," the older man went back to his chair, flicking his fingers to open the door. "So go on, enjoy the visit."

Rowan knew right away they were going to talk in private about all of this, he at least knew that much. He didn't need to have the Future's Sight nor any Sight to know stuff, because his perception was different from the others. Behold had told him, once they knew he wasn't going to develop his mother's gift, that that was the only thing left from her legacy in him. A way too keen perception and insight that helped him to overcome the absences in his life.

The trip to the kitchen was uneventful, except for a few witches that looked at him weirded out yet curious, and he ducked his head out of shame and hid behind his too long hair. His aunt only needed to ask one of them if she could show her the kitchen, and there they were, getting help from Kyle to brew some tea. He didn't talk much but seemed happy to have another boy around and Rowan felt the same, exchanging some banal words with him and being patient when his speech became broken at times.

Looking around, he smiled upon seeing how peaceful and clear the place was, sipping on his tea and feeling better while he talked with Kyle about a baseball game. It was one of the only normal things he enjoyed and it was nice to have someone to talk to. It wasn't that he had actual friends in Hawthorne, maybe a couple of other boys that were a bit closer, but none really appreciated him after ten years.

"...so, do you want us to go out and have dinner at your favourite restaurant?" a voice sounded suddenly in the kitchen and soon Kyle, Rowan and Abigail saw two girls holding hands and laughing together, one of them a bit taller than the other but not filling the space as the shorter one did. "I just want to have some time alo-"

"Mallory?"

Rowan felt himself warm with the mention of that name and his aunt was soon wrapping her arms around her granddaughter. He also felt how Kyle stood up and the other witch looked their way for a second too long, making the other guy in the room to go away with a mere wave of his hand for him as a farewell. His cousin didn't look at him yet but he prepared himself, standing up and fixing his clothes again to look presentable.

"You're a warlock," the unnamed girl was direct and he turned around to look directly at her. Mallory and Abigail turned to look at them too. "You weren't supposed to arrive o-"

"On Friday, yes, but we dec-"

"Roro?"

A weird satisfaction washed over him when the witch's face got pale because Mallory recognized him and the only thing that he could do was to pick up his cousin in his arms, hugging her like no tomorrow. It was easy to do it, because he was strong enough to give her a good bear hug, one of those they used to share when they were young. He didn't need someone to be hostile right now, he needed someone to recomfort him and his strength. 

Rowan knew his cousin was a witch because she had been the one telling him, straightforward as she was, and he finally told her the same after years of being tired of the 'being at a boarding school' white lie.

When they broke the tight embrace, Mallory smiled at him with the might of the sun and took the other witch's hand in hers. She eased at that and prepared herself to whatever Mallory was going to say.

"Zoe, this is my cousin, Rowan Ramírez," Mallory chirped and seeing her this happy, made him feel much better. "Rowan, this is...this is my girlfriend, Zoe Benson."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he said, politely, while shaking hands with Zoe, which seemed as lost as ever there. "Sorry for being rude, it's been a long day already and it isn't lunch yet."

However, the meeting was cut short when the back door in the kitchen opened, followed by child laughter and a few barks, along with heavy steps.

"Auntie, more cookies!"

"More cookies? You ate my last package, I'm sure your mother is gonna kill me if I give you more sugar," Rowan's eyes went first to the adult that was holding the Supreme's daughter in her arms as she weighed nothing, which probably was like that. 

"More!" another chirp and the girl lifted her arms, almost taking down the woman's glasses.

"Auntie Mina and I need to have a conversation later about getting back to your more by spoiling you," she sighed and then Sidonia barked again, seeing so many people in the kitchen but going towards Rowan at full speed and placing her big paws on his stomach. "What's going on here?"

Rowan couldn't gather any words upon seeing Raleigh in such a quotidian setting. It made him feel bad for trying to meddle in the  _ calm  _ life his  _ sister  _ was living in the moment. The worst thing about all of this was discovering his sister and him were pretty much alike, now that he was seeing her out of those fucking  _ professional _ clothes and just wearing comfy sweatpants and a giant hoodie matching her crocks. It scared him, more than when they met, her scar now that she wasn't wearing makeup drifting the attention from it but at the same time it brought a weird peace to him seeing her being that gentle with the little girl, who was trying to escape her arms to go with Zoe and Mallory.

He didn't hear half of the things said after that, barely letting himself be dragged and giving automatic responses to whatever was asked to him. Raleigh was quite content to see him, trying to calm the dog down so she didn't make him end up in his ass because she was strong. And he wasn’t that strong to not indulge in the way things still were.

Not only Raleigh but Mallory helped him through the afternoon, showing him all that Cordelia wanted once the private meeting between her and Behold finished it. He wrote down some new stuff he was sure would help him in his lessons, but also laughed and clapped when some of the other witches did something well. During those hours Rowan also learnt some more things about the life in the Academy: they usually made bets about things that could happen around the house, how Mallory and Zoe ended up together, how sometimes they made matches between the members of both houses for fun, how they gather a Friday a month to have movie night all of them and also how the teachers were the ones with more ongoing arguments over the silliest things.

It made him want the same good feeling in Hawthorne, even when Rowan knew they probably had some of the same dynamics between them, because after all everyone wanted to be better than their fellow classmates.

When the staff gathered for dinner, only a few, after everyone had their dinner, Rowan felt uneasy.

He sat at Behold’s left side and Mallory, invited that night only, right by him. Across from Rowan, Raleigh took a seat along with Wilhemina and their aunt Abigail - their, because Raleigh also called her like that. Some people that were missing when they arrived got there in time for the food like Cordelia’s wife, Misty, and Queenie and Madison, the last one giving him a long stare before taking a seat on the other side of the table. Everyone was polite and talked as if they were part of the group, and it felt nice to be around people like that.

However when coffee arrived, Rowan knew he couldn’t wait anymore to get the big secret out of him. He looked to the Supreme for a second and she caught his intentions right away. Should he say it there, in front of everyone? At least his sister would have her people around her in case everything went terribly wrong. The family she found ready to take action and cover her in their warm arms.

“Miss Ocean, I have something to tell you,” he started to say, his hands twisting under the table because he was still sitting. 

“What is it buddy?” she managed to say before getting another spoonful of chocolate ice cream, making Wilhemina to lift one eyebrow again because of her manners. “Are you gonna tell me you don’t want to be a teacher anymore or something?”

He was glad she made a joke at least, because it eased his heavy heart.

“No, not at all, I’m still pretty much thankful that you gave me this opportunity,” his voice trembled a bit, but Rowan covered that with a little laugh. “It’s the true motive behind our visit, why we really are here,” his eyes went to his aunt Abigail and then Raleigh did the same for a second before placing her focus on him. “Not long ago, I discovered that…well, is difficult now to put it in words.”

“Take it easy, none is rushing you,” her voice was serene yet he knew, deep in his own soul, that she was somehow being careful.

“I’m...I’m your brother,” Rowan let it out in such a strangled voice that he doubted he was heard at all, but his sister's face went incredibly pale. "It's difficult to explain, but I had done research...and my aunt here helped me. We...well, our mother asked me to find you b-but...I was really young and I didn't know what to do, and now everything-"

"Is this a joke?" her voice was so serious that it creeped him out, but his sister was now looking at their aunt. "What the fuck is this all about?"

"It's true Raleigh," Abigail said, holding her stare without problem, not being troubled by how her features grew angrier each second that passed. "Kaya had him a couple years after you were gone, I not only took care of your mother till her very end but I also helped to raise him. That's why I'm here, to tell you finally the truth."

Everyone in the room was silent, almost scared to say something. 

Rowan couldn't blame them at all, because all of this was nuts. It was absurd, because this kind of thing only happened in movies and they were very much in real life, even living in a world of witches and warlocks. Cordelia was getting an inquisitive look from her own wife and Behold was looking between them, his magic ready to react in case things got violent. Raleigh stood up and Wilhemina took her by the arm, fast as if she was also waiting for her to react, and muttered something to her before his sister made her lose her grip on her arm in such a gentle way that made him wonder if she was angry at all.

"I was in your home, seven years ago, and you only told me she was gone long gone, lost in her Sight," Raleigh's voice trembled while turning around to look at Abigail, as if Rowan wasn't there. "And you decided to hide something like this from me?"

"You barely could take care of yourself back then, what would you have done?" Abigail didn't move from her seat but Rowan did, standing up. 

It wasn't funny to suddenly feel such strong magic all over the room. He felt out of air and everyone except the only 'mortal' there as well, except maybe the Supreme that seemed to at least know things weren't going well. Rowan coughed but tried to push his own power to deflect it from the rest while Cordelia moved her own magic to gather it around the woman as a shield.

"Look, I don't want to impose on you," he managed to croak, fighting the urge to withdraw his magic because it was starting to burn in his magic conducts. "I will go away if you want it, out of your hair before you noticed, but I only wanted to at least know what my mother thought long lost was finally found."

His words did something to the woman, because suddenly the room was empty of magic again. A long deep breath from everyone sounded, recovering at their own pace, but none of them was fast enough to catch her this time. Raleigh stormed out of the room and both Cordelia and Wilhemina were the first ones to react. However Rowan was the one following her, gabbling that he got this and he was going to fix it. Probably the last persona in the house she wanted to see, but he was the one putting this situation over her and he wanted to at least make it right. 

It was easy to find her, mostly because the only thing she did was making a beeline towards the front door and then to the outside. Rowan took off his vest and his shows before following her, crossing the front yard and soon going out of the parcel to cross the street, where his sister was sitting on the edge of the sidewalk.

If she noticed him, she didn't show it, but Raleigh didn't stop him from sitting by her side. They shared the silence that the night gave them, looking at the enormous house in front of them. For Rowan it wasn't a weird silence, it was very familiar in fact, because he was used to his mother being wrapped in that wondering silence that he always knew was going to break once his mother told him something fun.

Other times she started to cry, expressionless, and mumbling names long gone.

And other times she just started to sing.

He could barely talk in spanish, but there was a song that he learnt by heart just from listening to his mother singing it. Rowan didn't know why, but it felt right to start singing it for his sister, maybe lacking the sentiment because he didn't have such sorrow rooted in him, and demonstrate to her that it wasn't a joke. Did their mother sing it for her too when she was little? Did their mother joke around her as she used to do around him, even when she was really sick?

All those questions his inner child wondered for years arose in his mind while singing, but he felt that soon they would be buried forever in order to not hurt anymore.

Nevertheless, when he knew the song was about to end, his sister's voice started to reprise it. And the sadness, the grief long buried, the yearning, the love behind those words...everything her mother sang it with, came alive again in that calm street in New Orleans.

Rowan started to cry then, his chest hurting and his heart squeezed against his sternum, listening to the voice of the only person on Earth that was blood related to him. He cried as if he was again in his mother's funeral, he cried as that first night away from the only home he knew for twelve years, he cried with all those feelings he buried for so long to control his powers...that now where bringing rainclouds over them, starting to cry along with him while Raleigh doubled the last part of the song. And while he cried, there was a hand on his thigh, a reassuring hand that seemed to not want to leave.

By the time Raleigh stopped from singing, the rain already drenched them to the bones. Rowan was still sobbing, but he was calming down little by little in between hiccups. He recognised his sister's magic reaching for him, now warm and not asphyxiating, and he let her envelop him in it because he very much needed it. They still didn't say a word, until he managed to mumble what his heart wanted to hear.

"What would you have done if you knew about me seven years ago?"

He felt an arm over his shoulders, hugging him and making him lean his head in Raleigh's welcoming shoulder. It was comforting in an awkward way, but he didn't want it any other way.

"I would have done the same I did, that I can't lie," she was sincere, not taking her eyes off from the house. "But, at least, once everything was done I would've gone to get you out of that fucking dungeon," Raleigh laughed openly, making him giggle. "I've been in the darkness all my life, the last thing I'd have wanted is for you to live like that too."

"It's not that bad, actually, we have a really nice library," Rowan retorted, pressing his wet sleeve to his runny nose. "And it's always chilly, even in summer."

"Fucking Hell, both things I don't have here," Raleigh sounded annoyed, in a light-hearted way, and that was like a wave of relief.

Rowan didn't want that moment to end, afraid that even when they were talking like that his sister decided not to talk to him further.

"I have a lot of papers if you want to check them, to see this is not a joke," he didn't break the contact, but couldn't help but inform her about it. "I wrote down everything aunt Abigail hid, along with things mom said and some other magic related things and-"

"I don't need that, because I do believe in you," his heart grew three sizes upon hearing those words, more tears in his eyes. "I hadn't heard that song since I was seventeen, not even now that I'm capable of doing so just by tapping something in my phone...but you singing it like that, with the same up and downs mama did...it was enough for me."

"You were the one singing it like her, I don't even know spanish to sing it well," Rowan chuckled and it made Raleigh chuckle as well.

"Yeah, that much I heard, we have to put a remedy to that, sweet baby Jesus," rain was still falling over them, but now it was lighter, and Raleigh held him closer to her body. "Can I ask you something, Rowan?" and Rowan only hummed in response, his sleeve again against his nose. "Was she happy before…?"

Even unspoken, he knew about what his sister was referring to. The memory came back to his mind and Rowan closed his eyes, letting the goodness of it all come to him again. He had come home like every other day from school, but that day his aunt wasn't the one welcoming him with open arms. Kaya was there at the door, her too long hair fixed it in a braid and her lean body covered with a dress full of flowers, and her expression was so clear and lucid that her smile was able to make Rowan smile even harder. With some difficulties, she listened to his entire day while eating and they spent the afternoon watching television, Kaya holding him close to her and kissing the crown of his head every now and then. She laughed openly when Rowan had told her a story - that one thing foggy in his mind - and she told him in response about making a picnic with the two of them in the backyard, so she could teach him more stories.

When the night came, his mother helped him to get ready for bed and said how much she loved him, tucking him while the shadow of her gift was trying to get her back as a selfish lover. He grew to recognize that detail, how it started to darken the rim of her eyes every time the magic was about to take her back.

But she seemed to fight against it for once, looking at him with eyes full of love and that smile she only gave him.

By next morning she was gone, but her smile was still there nonetheless.

"I like to think she passed like that, peacefully and not sad," he whispered and Raleigh sighed so deep that he could believe he heard it form in her lungs. "Aunt Abigail and I tried to make her as happy as we could."

The rain started to stop pouring over them and, as they looked at the big house Rowan could feel his sister's brain moving with million thoughts once again. She finally moved, standing up, and offered her hand to help him up to his feet. Rowan took it gladly and once he was by her side, it made him chuckle discovering they were almost of similar height but she was still beating him for a few centimetres for sure. 

The main door of the house opened to reveal a worried Wilhemina, leaning on her cane, and Sidonia again by her side. Rowan didn't move because Raleigh didn't either, so they waited a few seconds more in the street, both sharing a silence they seemed to enjoy.

"I can't promise you everything will be peachy from now on," Raleigh said that in a tone Rowan didn't expect his sister to have, taking in count how big and heavy was her presence. "I still have much to learn, to unlearn, to fix and to break...but I can promise you somewhere to call home again, even if I don't know yet where that place is supposed to be."

Rowan finally saw that his sister was a sad person, but in such sadness she seemed to hide a noble heart. Many would have abandoned him in the same situation, quickly forgetting he ever existed, but Raleigh didn't. She was sincere when she said that last statement, she gave him an answer to the only question he never asked. 

_ Would you let me in? _

And for that, he was thankful and relieved. He chuckled at that, gaining an amused look from Raleigh and then they started to walk towards the Academy as if they didn't run away at all and they were just coming back from getting something in the store.

"I'm good with that if that means you let me take a hot shower somewhere," the joke fell from his lips, easing the seriousness of the moment and showing his attitude was pretty much similar to his sister's. "Then we can keep talking about everything, if you want."

"I would love to for sure, just let's see first if Mina doesn't cut my head because I was a fucking asshole in there."


End file.
